Thomas King (1650 - abt. 1713)

Born 1650 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts

Descendants

Died about 30 Mar 1713 at about age 63 in Scituate, Providence, Rhode Island [uncertain]

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Biography

Thomas was likely the son of John King of Weymouth, Massachusetts Bay Colony, but there is no specific proof of it. John, Sr., John, Jr., Samuel, Philip, Thomas and Hezekiah King are on an Oath of Allegiance list for Weymouth dating from 1678 and 1679.^[1] Only John, Sr.'s, children Mary and Abigail have births recorded. Hezekiah is more reasonably place among John, Jr.'s, family. Philip and Thomas moved to Taunton. Thomas witnessed a deed in which Philip bought land there in 1683.^[2]

On 18 June 1683, Thomas bought land in the "Freeman's Purchase, which would soon be incorporated as the town Freetown, Plymouth Colony.^[3] The latter was absorbed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony on 2 June 1685 and Plymouth County created.

Thomas was a selectman in Freetown in 1685 and 1686.^[4] He was a constable in 1690 and a surveyor in 1695.^[5] He was again a selectman in 1699 and Town Clerk in 1700.^[6] He bought land in the South Purchase of Taunton in 1709 from Amos Briggs, who bought Thomas's homestead in Freetown.^[7] It's likely the Kings moved to the South Purchase at this time.

In 1713, after that area had been incorporated as the town of Dighton, Thomas and his wife Mary sold this property to their son-in-law John Alger. The Algers were residents of Tiverton and there is no evidence they moved to Dighton. Thomas and Mary undoubtedly stayed on this homestead since when the Algers sold it on 23 April 1719, Mary, now a widow, made an agreement on the same day with her son-in-law Ebenezer Briggs (brother of Amos) that she would buy the Briggs homestead, which was adjacent to that of the King's, and Ebenezer and his wife Comfort would take of her.^[8]

James Savage, in his genealogical dictionary, says Thomas died on 30 March 1713, based on a gravestone that says he was 70.^[9] That date is when he sold the homestead to John Alger. No evidence was found of a gravestone for Thomas or any mention of one other than in Savage's book. A circa birth date of 1643 is plausible, but it appears Savage confused his facts at least somewhat. It's possible Thomas died the same day as he made the deed (which was acknowledged the same day), but very unlikely.

Children of Thomas King and Mary Sprague

• John b. 29 August 1670^[10]
• Mary b. 12 June 1673^[10]
• Thomas
• Joanna (who has erroneously been placed in Philip King's family by some, but it was she who m. John Alger)
• Comfort

Sources

1. ↑ Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, vol. 39 (Boston: The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1933), 947
2. ↑ Bristol Co., MA, deed 1:17.
3. ↑ Bristol Co., MA, deed 2:355.
4. ↑ Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, ed. Nathaniel Shurtleff, vol. 6 (Boston:1856), 168, 187.
5. ↑ Freetown, MA, town meeting record, 1:15.
6. ↑ Freetown meeting, 1:37.
7. ↑ Bristol Co., MA, deeds 6:381, 7:73.
8. ↑ Bristol Co., MA, deed 15:264.
9. ↑ Savage, James, A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New Englandvol. 3 (Boston:1861), 26.
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} Vital records of Weymouth, Massachusetts, to the year 1850 (hereafter VRW), vol. 1 (Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1910), 161.